The Black Professors Pipeline (BPP) is a professional development and peer-learning initiative that supports Black academic staff working across UK higher education. Through day-long workshops and facilitated conversations, BPP creates space for the exchange of effective teaching practices, institutional knowledge, and strategies for sustaining long-term academic careers.
Across the UK, Black academics remain significantly underrepresented at senior levels. This has implications not only for racial equity in HE, but also for conceptual diversity, staff retention, knowledge production, and student experience. BPP responds to this reality by focusing on pedagogical skill-sharing, professional resilience, and collective learning, particularly in relation to teaching in diverse and often challenging institutional environments.
BPP workshops bring together lecturers, fellows, professors, and doctoral educators from across disciplines and institutions. Sessions focus on practical teaching and labour concerns while also providing opportunities for reflection, peer support, and cross-institutional connection.
The initiative is grounded in the understanding that effective teaching is shaped by context, and that racialised staff navigate additional, often invisible, demands in their professional roles with little-to-no institutional support. By creating a dedicated space for dialogue and shared expertise amongst Black faculty, BPP contributes to stronger teaching cultures and more sustainable academic environments overall.
Since its launch, BPP has convened scholars from across the UK and beyond, fostering networks that continue well beyond the workshops themselves.
Black Professors Pipeline (BPP) is a UK-based professional development initiative supporting teaching excellence, staff sustainability, and peer learning among Black academics in higher education.
